Issue #11731 has been updated by Alexander von Gluck. Shouldn't site-wide installations use packaged gem files as they install to /usr? Installing non-packaged files to /usr violates the LSB. A few linux distros seem to also set --user-install as default: https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk/gemrc?h=packages/ruby ---------------------------------------- Feature #11731: Make ruby gem install to user-install by default https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/11731#change-55037 * Author: Alexander von Gluck * Status: Open * Priority: Normal * Assignee: ---------------------------------------- Installing gem's system-wide doesn't make sense 99% of the time... * Linux -- Need root access via sudo * Windows -- Need administrator * Max OS X -- Need root access via sudo * Haiku -- /boot/system read-only gem currently installs gems system-wide by default Since the most common use-case is to install gems for your own user, why doesn't gem --user-directory by default? Tools like rvm already set this manually. Making --user-directory default means package maintainers only need to --no-user-directory while everyone else just gem install's -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/